'Legends of Tomorrow' Save Christmas and Say Goodbye to Another Team Member

When the Legends of Tomorrow go to 1000 A.D. America to tackle a massive aberration in time, they find an old friend they thought was dead: a young Marty Stein.

It comes at a weird time just after the death of the present-day Stein in the “Crisis on Earth-X” crossover event, when the team is trying to get over the loss. Jax especially is having a rough go of it, especially when Stein’s younger self shows up. “Leo,” the Doofus Rick of the Arrowverse, isn’t helping with “Puppet Therapy.”

Thankfully the team rallies behind the latest aberration in time:

For some odd reason, Martin Stein in 1992 successfully gets a fuzzy Beebo toy for Lily that’s the hottest Christmas gift, but then he’s ripped through time almost a thousand years. The cutesy Beebo, which looks like Sully from Monsters Inc. mated with a Furbie, becomes a god to the vikings, reshaping the history of America into New Valhalla. It even replaces Christmas with “Beebo Day.”

Because we aren’t allowed to have too much fun, Damien Darhk invades the past and becomes a real-life Odin to the vikings after Rory justly torches the old god Meeko. And though most of the episode is just the Legends posturing for awhile before figuring out their problems. By uniting against the Darhks, the Legends are able to win the day, but not before we get a cool look at Damien Darhk.

One deeply unsettling development happens when Damien Darhk uses an amulet to revive his daughter Nora. Sara Lance grabs him to stop the process, and she’s temporarily transported to an alternate dimension where she’s accosted by Mallus. We still don’t see his true full form, but chances seem likely we’ll see as much in the near future.

Jax struggles a bit throughout the episode, especially seeing a younger version of Stein. Emboldened by Maya and the other Legends randomly interfering with the past, he tries to write a letter that he hopes will be a “loophole” that might allow Stein to survive in the future.

Young Stein is more sensible than that, and even though he burns the letter and still winds up dead, he gets a few earnest conversations with Jax that provide the young hero with enough closure to move on — and leave the Waverider, maybe for good. But not before some holiday libations.